Steady
by Dragon6125
Summary: Part of my Virtual Reality/Modern AU. Main Fic: Playing with Dragons. Contains minor spoilers for Chapter 15, so read at your own risk. Law does some introspection while in the operating room.


**Steady**

When staring down at the limp body before him, Law couldn't help but think to himself, _'What if this were Lami? What if this was one of my parents?'_ There was a reason why he'd never volunteered for or accepted work in the burn unit before. The thought of operating there had been far too personal, even fifteen years later, when most of the memories he'd had of his blood family had begun to fade, it was still haunting him.

The grotesque sight of extensive second and third degree burns had never fazed him, even now, but the thoughts? Those were where he spiraled. He'd never particularly wanted to do it, but this was an emergency and they needed someone skilled and they needed them now. The hospital couldn't wait for a surgeon on call, so Law had agreed after just a heartbeat's hesitation and ran for the OR. Now here he was, cutting away at the charred skin of a teenager's chest and trying to keep his thought in order.

If this were his family, would he have been able to save them like he was now? It was a silly question to ask, of course. They'd died in the fire, they never had a chance to be saved, but if Lami were the one lying down on the slab in front of him, covered in grotesque burns and it was up to him to save her… could he have done it? He'd heard the stories about surgeons with guts of steel throwing up because the person in front of them had been a sibling, a parent, a lover, or a friend. He'd heard of doctors with usually razor-sharp precision being unable to so much as hold a scalpel in their hands without shaking because someone they cared about was bleeding out in front of them. Even if those doctors had done the procedure ten thousand times, it never mattered in that instant. Law wondered if he'd be the same, if he'd be skilled enough to do it, but too worried about fucking it up and losing the patient because he'd been compromised.

The patient before him's name was Luffy. It was easy to imagine the cheerful, god-awful, annoying, happy-go-lucky captain that he'd regretfully allied himself with inside of One Piece. The two had the same unruly black hair and the scar underneath the eye was too familiar to be coincidence, but it had to be. It had to be coincidence that the boy he was operating on had the same name as the one proudly displayed in the straw-hatted captain's username. There was no possible way that someone he'd met in a VRMMO of all places lived near the same city that he did in as big a place as Texas—not when the player base spanned the entire globe. What were the chances? The boy he knew was Brazilian, anyway. There was no way. At least, that's what he'd determined to keep telling himself. If he kept telling himself that then maybe he wouldn't have to find out. Maybe he wouldn't learn if he would be too weak to operate because no matter what he kept telling himself, he cared about the younger captain. He hated every second of it, but he _cared_.

So what it if _was_ the same Luffy? What if he let himself, for a moment, believe that it wasn't coincidence. Let himself accept that the two were one and the same? Would that really change anything? 

Law's hands paused for a moment as he took a deep breath in. One of the nurses glanced over at him, slightly concerned by his pause, but he only gripped his utensils tighter and resumed his work. The answer he found to his question was no. Even if the boy before him he begrudgingly acknowledged to only himself as a friend, nothing changed. He didn't feel queasy. He didn't feel hesitant. His hands were steady as always, his heartbeat still calm, and the ease at which he moved was the same as ever. If anything, acknowledging that the boy he was operating on was, indeed, the straw-hatted captain from the game only strengthened his resolve. It made him even more determined to get this right. When the life of someone he knew was hanging in the balance, he found himself in more of a trance-like state, shoving aside any and all emotions that might hinder his progress. He trusted his skills, so there was nothing to worry about. Besides… dissociation was his specialty.


End file.
